DISPERSION FORMS: AN INTERACTION OF MARKET ACCESS,COMPETITION, AND URBAN COSTS*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes a two‐region model including multiple industries with different transport costs. Two results are derived. First, dispersion occurs for small transport costs, but the specific dispersion patterns depend on the level of urban costs. This results from an interaction of the market‐access effect on consumers, the market‐access effect on firms, the competition effect, and the urban‐cost effect. Second, decreasing transport cost tends to let industries with lower transport costs disperse, although the shares of industries locating in the larger region are not in order of their transport costs. We further provide some empirical data concerning the second result.     

Manufacturing (co)agglomeration in a transition country: Evidence from Russia

We document the geographic concentration patterns of Russian manufacturing using detailed microgeographic data. About 80% of three-digit industries are significantly agglomerated, and a similar share of three-digit industry pairs is significantly coagglomerated. Industry pairs with stronger buyer–supplier links—as measured using Russian input–output tables—tend to be slightly more coagglomerated. This result is robust to instrumental variable estimation using either Canadian or US instruments. Using Canadian ad valorem transport costs as a proxy for transport costs in Russia, we further find that industries with higher transport costs are more dispersed, and industry pairs with higher transport costs are less coagglomerated.     

FIRM HETEROGENEITY,MULTIPLANT CHOICE,AND AGGLOMERATION

We examine the organization and location choice of heterogeneous firms in a two‐region economy. When some high‐productivity firms engage in multiplant production, a reduction in transport costs causes two changes in a small region: the closure of plants by high‐productivity multiplant firms and the relocation of low‐productivity single‐plant firms to the region. In the presence of high‐productivity multiplant firms, therefore, a decline in transport costs reinforces the spatial sorting of firms by productivity, enlarging the productivity gap between large and small regions. Conversely, reducing investment costs weakens the spatial sorting effects on regional productivity disparities.     

On a Quantitative Assessment of the Economic-Geographic Situation of Cities

The author suggests the use of combined production and transport costs of raw materials and manufactured goods to the consumer as an indicator of the economic-geographic situation of a city. He contends that it is no longer sufficient to characterize the situation simply as “favorable” or “unfavorable” and that there is a real need for quantification with the purpose of using this technique in long-range plans.     

Canadian foreign direct investment in the United States by type: mergers and acquisitions, greenfield, real estate, joint ventures and investment increases

This paper provides an overview of Canadian foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States by type. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As), greenfield investments, joint ventures, real estate purchases and increases to existing investments are compared spatially, through time (using a data set that consists of transactions from 1977 to 1994) and by industrial classification. Over this study's time-frame, direct investors from Canada were most likely to perform a real estate or M&A transaction in the United States (and least likely to be involved in a joint venture). The most consequential years for real estate purchases were the 1970s and early 1980s; whereas M&A and greenfield transactions have gained in proportionate importance through time. M&As, greenfield and investment increases were most often enumerated as manufacturing transactions, but mining and consumer and business services were also very common. A series of bivariate regression models established that growing state economies significantly increased M&A, real estate, greenfield and investment increase activity from Canada. Relative regional specializations (as given by location quotients) provided additional spatial information. M&As formed a pattern of specialization that emphasized the Great Lakes region and also the central portion of the US (roughly following the Mississippi River). Greenfield and investment increase transactions favoured states along the east coast and those adjacent to the Canada-US border. Real estate investors were most attracted to the US south and extreme west.     

LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICES COSTS AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM FLORIDA COUNTIES

Theory suggests that the spatial distribution of development within a local jurisdiction affects the costs of providing local public services. We use GINI coefficients to characterize these distributions at the county level and estimate the effects on real per capita expenditures from reductions in the spatial concentration of all buildings and nine alternative types of development. We also estimate the effect on expenditures from expansions in the developed area of a county. The results obtained from a panel of Florida counties confirm our theory and suggest that the geography of development within a county affects public services costs.     

The National Sample from the 1851 Census of Great Britain an Interim Report on Methods and Progress

Abstract

In the last years, the use of geographical information systems has been common in many historical and geographical studies. Perhaps one of the least known applications is network analysis, a series of functions related to hydrology and mobility. Since 1994, researchers have used network analyses to understand costs and time expenditure in transportation in Roman times, with the aim of modeling commercial routes. Archaeological objects were employed to confirm those commercial distributions whose quantities were related basically to transport costs. The present articles go far beyond and attempt to understand decisions in building a transport network based on time series. It seems that not all Roman decisions in transport infrastructure were due to economic reasons; some parts of Roman roads were built basically for political reasons and affected later developments.     

Coalition cascades: The politics of tipping points in clean energy transitions

Policy change often involves multiple policy subsystems, as in the case of clean energy transitions. We argue that trans-subsystem policy feedback is a central dynamic in policy change across subsystems. Policy in one subsystem creates benefits/costs and/or learning effects that mobilize actors for policy change in another subsystem, resulting in “coalition cascades” across interdependent subsystems. If coalition cascades lead to the resolution of coordination problems across subsystems, the system reaches a tipping point in policy change. Coalition cascades are thus the transmission belts of trans-subsystem policy feedback. We illustrate our argument in the case of California's clean energy transition. We show how early renewable energy policy spilled over into the subsystems on grid policy—leading to energy storage policy—and on transport policy—resulting in electric vehicle charging policy. The article advances our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning trans-subsystem policy change, offering a model of the politics of tipping points.     

Bushfires,Human Health Economics,and Pyrogeography

Bushfires (landscape fires) are a key Earth system process that affects humans and our societies and economies. In a recent article, we explored the coupling of humans to landscape fire through the lens of human health impacts of bushfire smoke. We noted that such an approach demands recognition of the indirect impacts and costs of bushfires that cannot be captured by simplistic proxies such as deaths directly attributable to a fire front. Evaluation of direct and indirect economic costs of bushfire disasters, and bushfire fire management remains a poorly developed research frontier that demands collaboration of expertise from a broad cross‐section of fields that often have limited experience of collaborating together. The need for such synthetic thinking about fire's place on Earth has spawned the discipline of pyrogeography.     

Can argillaceous formations isolate nuclear waste? Insights from isotopic,noble gas,and geochemical profiles

There is considerable interest in the use of thick argillaceous geologic formations to contain nuclear waste. Here, we show that diffusion can be the controlling transport process in these formations and diffusional time scales for δ¹⁸O and δ²H in water, dissolved He, and Cl transport in shale‐dominated aquitards are typically over 10⁶ years, well exceeding the regulatory requirements for isolation in most countries. Our scientific understanding of diffusive solute transport processes through argillaceous formations would benefit from the application of additional isotopic tracers (e.g., using new ⁴He sampling technology), multidimensional diffusive‐dispersive modeling of groundwater flow and diffusive‐dispersive solute transport over long geologic time scales, and an improved understanding of spatial heterogeneity as well as time‐dependent changes in the subsurface conditions and properties of argillaceous formations in response to events such as glaciation. Based on our current isotopic and geochemical understanding of transport, we argue that argillaceous formations can provide favorable long‐term conditions for isolating nuclear wastes.     

珠江三角洲陆路运输网络效率测度及其演化

构建运输网络效率测度模型,对珠江三角洲27个县域单元1980年代以来运输网络效率的时空演化特征进行分析,结论表明:相较传统的通达性指标,网络效率指标在识别交通网络发展状况方面更有效;珠三角运输网络效率空间分异模式与通达性空间分异模式有较大差异,网络效率低值点和高值点同时存在于核心和外围地区;1988-2008年,随着珠三角陆路交通网络的发展,运输网络效率空间格局从原有的南北向"走廊"分布态势,转变为东西向面状均衡分布格局;运输网络效率水平大幅提升,网络效率平均值从4.42减少到1.41小时,变化率达到68.09%。各城市陆路运输网络效率与其城市发展关系表现为高度支撑型、基本支撑型、基本适应型及高度适应型四类。     

TRANSPORT-RELATED FRINGE BENEFITS: IMPLICATIONS FOR MOVING AND THE JOURNEY TO WORK

ABSTRACT.  Firms offer compensation not only through wages, but also offer transport-related fringe benefits such as transport benefits (company cars, travel, and parking benefits) and relocation benefits to job applicants. We argue that these benefits are not randomly offered to employees, but depend on the job applicants' commuting costs. The firms' choice between these benefits affects the workers' incentive to move their residence closer to the workplace. Using information on firms' recruitment behavior in the United Kingdom, this paper shows empirically that the applicants' journey-to-work time induces firms to offer these benefits to job applicants. The implications of transport-related fringe benefits for commuting and relocation are found to be rather distinct. Transport benefits make employees less sensitive to the costs of commuting, whereas relocation benefits induce employees to move closer to the workplace.     

Modified Moran's I for Small Samples

The most common indicator used to measure spatial dependence is Moran's I proposed by statistician Patrick A. P. Moran in 1950. The index is simple to use and applies the principle of the Pearson correlation coefficient, although it incorporates a proximity measure between elements. However, Moran's I tends to underestimate real spatial autocorrelation when the number of locations are few. This study aims to present a modified version of Moran's I that can measure real spatial autocorrelation even with small samples and check for spatial dependence.     

SPATIAL COMPETITION À LA COURNOT: PRICE DISCRIMINATION BY QUANTITY-SETTING OLIGOPOLISTS*

In this paper, we consider oligopolistic competition in a spatial model when firms take care of goods' delivery and discriminate among consumers. Firms compete by setting quantity schedules independently over space. We show that under general conditions a Nash equilibrium in this game exists and is unique. In equilibrium, firms’ markets overlap, a feature which accords with intuition and empirical observations. Over the interval between two firms, the equilibrium spatial price schedule is quasi-concave (quasi-convex) when transport costs are concave (convex). With linear transport costs, the model predicts uniform delivered pricing. Uniform pricing could moreover be obtained by a combination of increasing returns to volume in transportation together with concavity of unit transport costs in distance.     

Spatial inequality and urban costs: Revisiting the home market effect

This paper investigates how the interactions between product differentiation, transport costs, and urban costs determine the spatial inequality in a general‐equilibrium model. We shed light on the interrelation between different definitions of home market effect (HME) in literature. While the wages in the large region are always higher, the HME in industrial distribution occurs in a limited range of parameters, implying that the HME in factor price is more pervasive. Moreover, we show that the reverse HME is the more common outcome. It indicates that neglecting urban costs in theoretical methodologies tends to overestimate the existence of HME. We also disclose how a change in urban costs or transport costs affects regional inequalities and welfare.     

A biface and blade core efficiency experiment: implications for Early Paleoindian technological organization

Early Paleoindians often are described as highly mobile hunter–gatherers who employed lithic technologies designed to minimize stone transport costs. We experimentally reduced blade and bifacial cores and found both reduction strategies to be equally efficient for the production of useable flake blanks. Further, when compared to similar core reduction experiments, the results of this study showed no significant differences in core efficiency between bifacial, prismatic blade, and wedge-shaped blade core reduction. Biface and blade cores with initial weights greater than 1000 g produced useable flakes as efficiently as informal cores. However, bifacial and blade core efficiency decreased with initial core weight. When considered in terms of Early Paleoindian technological organization, differences in core efficiencies suggest that Folsom groups employed core reduction strategies designed to minimize stone transport costs, but Clovis groups did not.     

HOMEOWNERSHIP IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD WITH SUBSTANTIAL TRANSACTION COSTS*

ABSTRACT This paper presents a dynamic model of residential real estate tenure decisions that takes into account the substantial transaction costs and the uncertain time paths of rents and prices. By temporarily postponing decisions, buyers and sellers obtain additional information and may avoid transactions that are costly to reverse. One implication is that the combination of high transaction costs and substantial uncertainty can create a large wedge between a household's reservation prices for buying and selling a home, which can explain why households do not switch back and forth between owning and renting as home prices fluctuate.     

Hotelling Games with Three,Four, and More Players*

Abstract. This paper extends the interval Hotelling model with quadratic transport costs to the n‐player case. For a large set of locations including potential equilibrium configurations, we show for n > 2 that firms neither maximize differentiation—as in the duopoly model—nor minimize differentiation—as in the multi‐firm game with linear transport cost. Subgame perfect equilibria for games with up to nine players are characterized by a U‐shaped price structure and interior corner firm locations. Results are driven by an asymmetry between firms. Interior firms are weaker competitors than their rivals at the corners. Increasing the number of firms shifts even more power to the corner firms. As a result, there is too much differentiation from the social perspective if n ≤ 3, while adding firms leads to a level of differentiation in equilibrium below the social optimum.     

A Comparison of Simple Lattice Transport Networks for a Uniform Plain

The objective is to compare construction and transport costs for triangular, orthogonal, and hexagonal regular lattices as transport networks serving a uniform, unbounded plain. The lattices are standardized so that the average distance from the elementary area to the edge is the same for each. This standardization results in equal construction costs for the three networks; thus, the comparison can be made in terms of route factors, which favors the triangular lattice over the other two.     

LOCATING OUTSIDE A LINEAR CITY CAN BENEFIT CONSUMERS*

ABSTRACT We investigate the effects of restricting the locations of firms in Hotelling duopoly models. In standard location‐price models, the equilibrium distance between firms is too great from the viewpoint of consumer welfare. Thus, restricting the locations of firms and shortening the distance between them improves consumer welfare by reducing prices and transport costs. We introduce strategic reward contracts into location‐price models and find that, in contrast to the above result, restrictions on the locations of firms reduce consumer welfare. These restrictions reduce transport costs but increase prices by changing the strategic commitments of the firms.